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benvoliothefirst

Grave Guard
Nov 22, 2011
278
That cape is stunning. Love how you used the War Games Factory skellies... I bought like four boxes of 'em, and while I agree with some of the reviews that say they can be a bit "fiddly," this is pretty much the perfect use for 'em.

Can't wait to see Nagash finished, and I'm very glad we get some WIP shots, the wait is gonna kill me! You'll have a beautiful, custom centerpiece when he's all done. I'm jealous!
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@benvoliothefirst Thanks! I didn't know they were fiddly, but you are right - my use for them is one of the few that doesn't bother with that quality of theirs ;) It's actually quite impressive about them - they are more detailed than GW's new skeletons, only their faces are a little goofy ;)

The work is slugging along slowly - but I completed all the books, the outside of them that's it. I need all the things connecting with the spirits to be completed before I start painting all the etheral stuff. Next on the list is the robe - it's painted black already and it's time to make all the freehand on it. I guess I need to delve again into my inspiration folder to look for some convincing patterns ;) The outside of the main book below - I am going for a dirty style ;) :

YsQ8TiA.jpg
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Big thanks everyone! I kinda enjoy this relaxed pace of painting when I can focus on even little pieces as this one ;) I started today with the yellow freehand on his robe and it isn't that bad - I have a lot of space to paint and much of it will be covered with the cape, so I don't have to overkill myself. Only these nasty spirits stand in the way of painting comfortably :frown: I will post something later :)
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
The freehand on the robe proved to be much more of a challenge than I thought - and mainly because it's quite tedious and I can't find enough time to sit and paint. The fact that I needed to buy a new tiny brush didn't speed up things...

Nevertheless, the main colors and patterns are already painted - I need to only highlight it and refine.

In the meantime I actually finished my Wight King - I was doing him in the meantime, as he has the same color scheme and he was simple enough to be done quickly. I don't have any good chance to make him a photo though, as I am not at home when the sun is up :frown: I'll post him during the weekend, along with some progress on Nagash. I wounder if I would be able to finish him in 2015....
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Ok, at last I have something to post!

Zlyshko, the Spider King. His backstory below:

Nicknamed 'the Spider' during his youth for having six fingers on his right hand, he adopted the title, being as cunning and devious as a real spider during his rule. Later, King Zlyshko was the first ancient king to bend his knee before the Avatar of the Death God. While others before him perished without even a memory of them left in the world, Zlyshko was clever enough to notice when should he put his pride aside. Thanks to that, he was blessed with extreme longevity and eventually - undeath. Ruthless warrior and an effective tactician, he led many armies against the enemies of the ever-expanding Varsavia, before eventually being put to a temporary rest in an exquisite tomb. While still susceptible to some degree to the necromantic powers of von Greifens and Hautfell, he is able to overpower that and get surprisingly big independence for himself. Additionally, he still enjoys obedience of the wight warriors - so he's much more of a wild card than any other wights. Thankfully for the vampires and necromancers, he considers the younglings (as he calls the denizens of the modern world) useful allies.

I wonder if someone will find the small conversion on him [beyond the helmet and scratches on metal] without reading his backstory :)

As I said before, I painted my Wight King during the work on Nagash as they have the same color scheme. Only today I was able to make photos of him, as I can't get both time and sunlight during the weekdays ;) I read some stuff about making photos and I am quite pleased with how this turned out - it's actually reflects well how does it look in real life xD

I used the fragment of shield that's visible, thought of it as a spider and then spun both the backstory and the design on the cloak around it. The pointy helmet makes him look proper slavic ;) Also, the base was difficult to flock, seeing as how little surface of it there is... He looks a little dark, especially compared to strigois on the shelf, but nevertheless I'm quite pleased with the outcome :)

Pictured:

6q107rk.jpg


And I'm getting back to Nagash. Not much time to do him lately...
 
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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine Rightly so that you are pleased, this is brilliant stuff, very contrasting and definitely pleasing on the eyes. I don't think I'd go for reddish fur on anything but it definitely works well on this guy.

Your back story for him and detailing on his cloak are really cool too. I didn't notice the conversion before reading and still can't really make it out on my phone right now.

Excellent work as always buddy, I have high anticipation for your Nagash project!
 

Sessioni

Black Knight
Dec 29, 2014
300
@Borgnine Nice job on the Wight king! I've got that model too, one of the coolest new models GW has created. And that cape really mourns for some freehanding, so much space. You nailed it. I love how you write your own fluff for every model you make, that's some twisted stuff, in a good way xD I find it hard to criticize your paint job, but in my opinion you could add another layer of highlight on the red fur, at least at some areas. Nevertheless, top notch stuff right there!

edit. Just noticed the dragon on the cape. Great! :thumbsup:
 
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Leithel

Grave Guard
Jun 3, 2015
286
Sydney
Great work @Borgnine . I do love updates to this thread, really inspiring me to keep going with my work as well. Nice work on the freehand, in particular onthe highlighting to make it blend in with the other highlights. I definitely agree with @Farmer7574 on the contrasting and your solid colour choices make it a great piece.

The only suggestion I have is on the grass on the base. It's sitting over his cloak so it makes him look like he hasn't moved in a while. :)

Fantastic work!
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Big thanks for the comments and critique! I appreciate that :thumbsup:

@Farmer7574 Thanks! I still need to have some red accents on my wights, so the fur was one of the few choices, besides Krell already have it like that ;) And regarding you reading the forum on the phone - I find my home laptop small after using a big monitor at work, I can't imagine it on a smartphone ;)

@Sessioni Yes indeed! Before the Morghdudes undead updates were really solid ;) Freehanding here was a good training for Nagash's robe. Also, about the red - I went and looked, on the model it looks proper, not like here on the photo. Damn it, the rest of the photo is doing a good job and just the red is somehow distorted :frown: Thanks for the comment and reading :)

@Eyeless Thanks! I'll try to keep up ;)

@Leithel That's the good part about 2 color freehands, highlighting them is relatively easy and doable ;) Regarding the grass - lately I am going for very bushy and thick forest cover - so when I'm applying this on this meagre base it turns out like this. There would be much more of this if he had a bigger base ;) Besides, that's why his cape is so dirty on the bottom part xD Thanks for pointing this out.

By the way - in work I noticed that you can't actually see the attachments if not logged in :rolleyes: I started slowly to reupload old photos to hosting sites to circumvent this. Besides, the photos will be bigger thanks to that, even when logged. I also started adding links to the backstories so it would be easier to find who is who xD Will come in handy when I'll get more characters ;)
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
This break was much longer than anticipated - almost whole december I was either busy at work or catching up with RL matters I wasn't able to do because of the work :frown: Then I went back to Poland, leaving the workshop behind. And then it was so cold that only thing I wanted to do was to hide beneath blankets and wait for all this winter to pass. Only now I was able to do some work ;) Nagash in still on! Today I finished the freehand on his robe - that part was long and tedious... Now I can begin with painting the ghostly parts.

A little sneak peek:

hVetsIg.jpg
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@Eyeless @Malisteen @Zephyr @Leithel Big thanks guys! This model is perhaps a little too epic, too many things are going on here and I don't have patience to do my best on every single small piece, not to mention that I overlook many things :rolleyes:

Oh, and as a bonus - I did this a long time ago but didn't make a photo. A shield for my Vampire Standard Bearer, with a skeletal griffon sign - painted entirely with liquid green stuff! Covered later with hardcoat for durability ;)

ThiWOhP.jpg
 
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Leithel

Grave Guard
Jun 3, 2015
286
Sydney
Nice looking shield @Borgnine . Tell me, with the LGS, did you paint each bone on thick or did you layer it on layer after layer until it was deep enough fro your liking? I've used it a bit before, it's fantastic stuff and one of the few items that GW does that I've not found a good alternative for, but never thought to paint on a raised image.
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@ObliviJohn Well, and I can be jelaous of such an original Varghulf ;)

@Leithel Definitely multiple layers. You won't get a single stroke of LGS to look thick enough - either it will get dry and thin or you'll get too much of it in one place and it will fall apart. It's difficult to see where is the GS on the first layer, but after each next it gets easier.

@Farmer7574 Big thanks :) I am trying my best!
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Behold Nagash! Or maybe the Avatar of the Death God ;)

hxQ9CPA.jpg


Some fluff about how does he fit into my story:
Speaking with high ranked Wights in the raised army of the ancient Varsavia, von Greifens were able to learn that their Death God allowed to summon his avatar in times of great need. Striking such a deal with him came most often with great costs - even after huge amount of sacrifices, the summoner would find his own life in the hands of the unpredictable deity. When it succeeded though, great hosts of undead warrios could be easily summoned and enemy armies quickly obliterated. Vampires were really unsure about dealing with such an unpredictable power, but decided to remeber about it should great danger arise. Also, they put Hautfell under much stricter watch, expecting the necromancer to try and subvert this power for himself. Would it happen and if it's even possible to harness it - only the future will show that.

Okay, after almost half a year since I started cutting the parts out of the sprue, I managed to finish this enormous work with Nagash. I had some pauses and I worked only for a short time each time, but it worked out somehow.

Big thanks to everyone who helped me during the design phase early on - @Adam_Barrow , @Farmer7574 , @Leithel , @Tawg and others ;) Also I credit @InkubPendragon for the idea about making a 'cinematic' shot of the mini xD

I did some conversions on him, mainly to make him look much more slavic and not so egyptian. The base also was much worked upon, to blend the ghosts into the ground and add some forest decorations - but unfortunately I wasn't able to take a good foto of it, because I couldn't hold the camera so high without moving it... :frown:

The painting was extreme, to say at least - many parts were really hard to reach, the model is enormous and there are many, many different parts. Not once I smudged a ghost with paint while trying to reach something below. There are parts I could do better, but I really wanted to finish him and move onwards - and maybe those things won't be noticeable ;)

Also, some info about my surprise feature - slavic idols, each representing one of the WFB lores. I tried my best to emulate real stones I choose to represent them: beasts is amber [my best work among them here in my opinion], death is amethyst, metal is gold, fire is karneol, heavens is moonstone, life is jade, shadow is chaldedony and light is golden beryl.

The pictures, with many details:

4bvvJ3Y.jpg


Now every next project will be a piece of cake. Before I start with the Necrosphinx, I'll try some smaller things, one of them my last christmas present :)

Cheers!

EDIT: Since I got a tripod for my camera, I finally got to make decent photos of the base. I spend a crapload of time doing it, so it seemed a waste that it wasn't that good visible on the main photos ;)

gvvihxA.jpg
 
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